Sunday, November 18, 2007

But wait! There's more!!

Quote of the day: "If you were to choke a smurf, what color would it turn?" ~Rich Little

Song of the day: "Pushit" by Tool

State of mind: eh

Date: Nov. 18, 2007

Wow, have I been a slacker or what!? Well, I have a partial excuse. And it is this: After I came back from LA I developed a weird case of vertigo. For about a week gravity would play funny tricks on me. One moment it would be pulling me down as it should from beneath my feet and the next it would move up next to my head and make me want to lay down. Plus, I felt like my body was moving three seconds ahead of my soul. Looking at moving objects made this sensation worse and induced a touch of nausea to boot. (No pun intended.) So I avoided things like TV and the internet for a few days. As I was avoiding moving media, I read a few books. Twilight and New Moon by Stephanie Meyer; a pair of young adult books about a girl named Bella that falls in love with a vampire named Edward. I just needed something fast and easy to distract me from the dizzyness. They brought back memories of High School. Fun. (You all didn't know? Henry is a vampire. Isn't that nifty?) After that, I was just tired. It's dark now when I get home, I've had too much actual work to do at work to sneak online and chit chat with you all even though that is pretty much what I'd rather be doing, and when I get home in the dark, I don't feel like sitting in the corner in front of my computer. So I avoided, but promised myself every day for the past few weeks I'd get up early and blog, or find time to do it at work. So far, my promises mean nothing. Wow. Do I suck or what? But here I am now. I've moved my computer to a less corner like location and have tons of complaining to accomplish!Would you like to hear more about the party I didn't go to? No?Tough. My blog. Not yours. It was a cloudy day in November and I had just spent two ridiculous hours in a rackety shuttle trying to get from LAX to my hotel which is actually just 40 minutes away if you have a driver that isn't a moron. (I was obviously not so lucky.) Because of the extra driving time, I missed the dinner we were all supposed to gather for at 5:30 at a pizza place in the Hollywood Highland complex/tourist mall thing on Hollywood Blvd. I finally got to my hotel at 7:30, checked in, and found a few friends in the lobby that also missed dinner. The four of us decided to get some pizza together and find everyone else after. Later, as we are heading back to the weirdest located hotel ever, I think I see the author I invited out for drinks walk by. I'm not sure if it's him seeing as we've never actually met and since I'm with a group of ladies that were crossed off the guest list for the party he chose to go to instead of meeting us out for drinks, I didn't really feel like calling attention to myself and having to do those kinds of awkward introductions. (I totally should have though. WTF is wrong with my sense of snark and spitefulness?) We go to our rooms and on the way a completely different person tells me that a certain actor friend of the author's is at the party. You know, the one I refused to go to because my friends were un-invited. I become angry, but am not surprised in the least. I go downstairs to where the other ladies have their room and fill them in. Most are shocked at this turn of events and understandably pissed off. Then they look up because they weren't sure to believe me or not and there he is in the window. Jaws drop. I find one of my roommates, who also had an invite, told her to take another roommate that didn't have an invite but has done tons for the fandom, and off they went. I stayed with the others because as we were standing there someone else came by and told us that everyone was free to join the party at 9:30. Well, ok then! That was fine. In fact, it was one of the alternatives I suggested on the board as I was arguing about the etiquette of stealing an invitee and excluding party guests. If they wanted some special time with him and the author, I was ok with that. No one was disputing whether or not they should have a private party. It was HOW they came about having that party that has always bothered me. I stay downstairs with a few of the other girls and we catch up until well past 10:00. At that time we go upstairs figuring everyone else is in the party. We were wrong. They were still sitting in their room because one of the girls had tried to go over to the party at about 10:15 (a full 45 minutes after the 9:30 open invite) to talk to one of the other ladies in the party and was pushed away from the door by the woman that organized the party. (And when I say organized, I mean she shanghaied, lied, and manipulated people to get what she wanted and then as a bonus, walked over people that she supposedly called friends, some of whom have done a lot for her personally. But I guess someone paying for her hotel the year before so she could attend a convention, or paying for her dinner so she could eat at that convention, or getting a stretch limo so a bunch of stranded fans could go to the beach for one day- including her- don't mean a fucking thing.) So there they sat in a room just 3 doors down from a party that everyone could hear because the party goers opened all the windows. (Private party, my ass.) They were gutted. Heartbroken. I could not have been more disgusted. Just how greedy does one person have to be to actually force someone out the doorway of a party they shouldn't have arranged just for a few more minutes with someone that is not going to be calling or emailing or offering actual friendship because he has enough of his own friends and all of those friends are probably 100 times hotter and more fun to hang with? I was so shocked, I couldn't move. I think I even had some trouble breathing at one point, but may have blocked that out. The only thing that kept me from marching down the hall and throwing the "organizer" out the window was the fact that I actually didn't want to make a scene. Or get arrested. I should have though. What's a small felony record when it comes to combating social greed? Afterwards, one of the ladies came out of the party and had the nerve to walk up to another of the ladies that wasn't allowed to go and say, "What could we do? It wasn't our decision." Uh... being there was your decision. How about opening your mouth and saying to the special guests, "Hey, my friends are just down the hall. They've done a lot for a large group of people and aren't crazy. Can they come over?" Or even, "It was nice of you to come, but we invited more people over at 9:30. If you want to stay you are welcome, but we can't in all good grace, keep them waiting outside just for a few more minutes with you." Those are choices that could have been made. But weren't. Why? Because greedy people don't actually think about others. They pretend to while they get what they want from you but as soon as they can get something cooler, you don't exsist. (*Special note: I do not feel this way about all of the woman at the party. Most had no idea others were being kept from the party and were pretty upset to have found out they were after the fact. They too were lied to. Which makes me feel bad for them because they had this really cool thing happen but now it's tainted with the knowledge that their friends were hurt just so they could have it.)So, I never went to the party. I refused. Why? Because NYPinTA don't play that. (BTW- is that phrase over yet? Did I just kill it, right then?) Afterwards, I sent an email to the author I invited oh so long ago for drinks (but had that invite usurped by others who were pretty much using him to get to his friend) and told him exactly what happened. He's still confused. After three or four emails back and forth- one with a time line of the events leading up to Thursday- he still doesn't get it completely. I can tell because he keeps apologizing. Why? He was lied to! What is he apologizing for? Is it that Canadian thing maybe? And he wants to do it all again next year. Holy crap.

BTW- can you believe I've been blogging for three years? Proof: TGIF, Again.

4) Never, ever, let other people decide for you how to live your life. Even if they are wrong and you are right. Even if it means having to not say anything. Don't be a martyr and miserable just to be right. It isn't worth it.

If I had gone to the party, violence would have ensued. I was that angry. (And tired. See below.)

I think my snark was still back in Atlanta. In my defense, I was working on only 2 hours of sleep in about three days and my flight was delayed causing me to be late to LA by about 6 hours. (I missed my flight by 20 minutes. I should have been in LA at 11 that morning.)

Fandoms do suck. Well, people in fandoms can suck. I've meet too many cool folks to write fandoms off.

I would have gone to the party, but there were too many people that I think too much of that couldn't. I couldn't do that to them. I didn't stay out because of the people who went to the party. I stayed out for those that couldn't. That was my choice.

Okay, wow, I'm not even sure what fandom is, but I just totally caught up on this whole thing (finally) and damn, the hijackers were just RUDE. Sounds like trivial people just took over and I wish you had stomped all over them. I wish you had gone to the party, but wishes are well, desires that usually can't come true so pointless.

I'm more glad your vertigo is over. I've suffered from vertigo and it isn't fun.

Don't know why my comments didn't show up before. I would've been first. Champion. The One. OK, I'm exaggerating the point. I know.